EXHIBITIONS

The Modern Monument

Ongoing

The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden, first floor, exterior

This ongoing installation brings together diverse works around the theme of the modern monument and features two new important acquisitions. The 36-foot-tall Rose II (2007), made by German artist Isa Genzken, came into the collection following the artist’s critically acclaimed retrospective at MoMA last winter. United Enemies I (2011) by Thomas Schütte, who also lives and works in Germany, comprises two pairs of massive bronze human figures, each roped together in eternal antipathy. These works extend a long tradition of addressing contemporary culture through monumental sculpture. They now share the Garden with Auguste Rodin’s Monument to Balzac (1898, cast 1954), commissioned in honor of one of France’s greatest novelists, which is less a representation of Honore de Balzac’s physical likeness than an idea or spirit of the man. Also on view is a trio of monumentally-scaled figurative bronzes by British sculptor Henry Moore made between 1948 and 1963, which, when seen together, trace his increasingly abstract treatment of the human body. Favorites like Picasso’s She-Goat (1950) and Joan Miró’s Moonbird (1966) are also featured alongside works by Alberto Giacometti, Henri Matisse, Barnett Newman, and others.

Organized by Ann Temkin, The Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture.

The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden Exhibitions are made possible by a partnership with Volkswagen of America.

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